Mack Brown retells the aftermath of Texas' 41-38 victory against USC at the 2006 Rose Bowl with unfailing accuracy.

He remembers telling Edith Royal, "Get down." The wife of legendary coach Darrell K. Royal was on a ladder replacing numbers on the equipment truck to signify the Longhorns' 2005 season. Brown laughs about that now as he recalls walking into the "dressing room" filled with celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Lance Armstrong, Roger Clemens and Rex Linn. He remembers USC Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush coming to the locker room door to offer congratulations.

"It's just a fiasco in there, so it's hard to put everything in your mind at that moment of what happened," Brown told Sporting News. "I asked Coach Royal, ‘What does this mean?' He says, 'Oh, coach, you check off a box that very few ever to get to check off.'"

We all got to check something off that night, and Brown's recollection of that epic showdown is fitting. It's one of those games where everyone remembers where they were: It had a heavyweight-title fight atmosphere that only No. 1-vs.-No. 2 can provide. It was the crown jewel of the BCS era, a game that will be revived when No. 4 USC meets Texas at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in the team's first meeting since that unforgettable night in Pasadena.

We'll see those highlights on a loop again: Bush's ill-fated lateral; LenDale White on fourth down; Vince Young's dash to the pylon for the game-winning touchdown; Leinart tossing desperation warm-up throws before the final possession. It has been 11 years and counting, but it still feels fresh.

What separates this game from the rest? We saw it coming the whole time, and you wonder if we'll ever see something like it again. USC and Texas went wire-to-wire at No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the regular season. The Trojans had a 34-game win streak. The Longhorns' was at 19 games. The buildup matched the game.

That hasn't been the case thus far in the College Football Playoff age. Five different teams in 2014 — Florida State, Alabama, Oregon, Auburn and Mississippi State — held either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot in the regular season before Ohio State eventually won the championship. Six different teams in 2015 — Ohio State, TCU, Alabama, Michigan State, Baylor and Clemson — held the top two spots. Last season, Alabama went wire to wire as the regular-season No. 1, but Clemson, Florida State, Ohio State and Michigan all spent time in that No. 2 spot.

Oklahoma replaced Ohio State at No. 2 this week. Brown, however, thinks history will repeat itself — at some point.

"I think we will because I think there will be two teams at some point that will be that good again," Brown said. "That's what made that game a little more special was leaving their national championship and our Rose Bowl win against Michigan the year before 1-2, and it was never at any time questioned. Everybody said that was the two best teams in the country. It's one of the few times I can ever remember in my 42 years of coaching that it was clear-cut and there wasn't much discussion."

That talk started when Young proclaimed, "We'll be back!" from the podium after the Rose Bowl victory against Michigan, but the internal discussions were even better. Brown recalls Young's message before a summer workout that said, "Anybody who wants to beat Ohio State, you need to meet me at the practice field at 7 a.m." The entire team showed up. The entire season was built toward USC, but it took a game-winning touchdown pass from Young to Limas Sweed for a 25-22 victory at No. 4 Ohio State in that second game to get there.

Scheduling that game was a risk, but it was worth taking. Brown sees the same theme in the College Football Playoff era.

"I think if Ohio State would have beaten us that night, they would have played USC," Brown said. "That's what happens with these early games now with Alabama-Florida State, Michigan-Florida, you have to win most likely. They say, ‘You can get back in,' but the one that wins those games has the better chance to stay around."

Once Texas beat Oklahoma 45-12 that season, the team's entire focus geared toward USC. Brown recalls all that, too. After a victory against Colorado, Texas players cheered USC's victory against Notre Dame on the legendary "Bush Push" game. Brown knew the game was coming by then, and he delivered an unorthodox message to the players.

It's one that didn't get made public.

"Keep your mouth shut, but play each week like you're playing USC," Brown said. "We actually played the last part of the season against USC."

That's exactly what the Longhorns did, beating their next six opponents by an average of 41 points, including a 70-3 romp over the Buffaloes in the Big 12 championship game. That led to the greatest game possible.

There hasn't been anything like it since. We've had Heisman showdowns, like Florida's Tim Tebow and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford in 2008-09. We've had undefeated teams, such as Alabama vs. Texas in 2009-10 and Auburn vs. Oregon in 2010-11. We've even had thrilling last-minute touchdowns from Florida State's Jameis Winston in 2013-14 and Clemson's Deshaun Watson last year. Even Watson's effort in the 2015 College Football Playoff championship game — a 45-40 loss to Alabama — had Brown's attention.

"We're going to start seeing more games like that, I even thought it looked like Clemson was going to come back in the Fiesta Bowl two years ago, and that would have been very, very similar," Brown said of Watson. "They wanted me to be ready to be comment on the game if Deshaun brought them back like Vince brought us back, and of course it happened last year."

But while all those games had some aspects of USC vs. Texas, that 2006 Rose Bowl had everything rolled into one. And it seems we may have to wait a little while longer for another game like it.

Alabama is No. 1 through two weeks, but there are double-digit teams that could make a case for the national championship right now. Plus, we won't know for sure until we see two undefeated teams play each other in the championship game. There were two Heisman winners in Leinart and Bush, and the guy who could've won it in Young, who solidified his place in college football history with that game-winning touchdown run.

There was the perfect back-drop at the Rose Bowl.

There was Brown afterward, unprepared to give a victory speech because the Longhorns were down 12 points with 6:42 remaining. He said the magnitude of the moment didn't hit him until a trip the White House on Valentine's Day, but he'll always remember what USC coach Pete Carroll said when they found each other at midfield.

"He says, ‘You never want to lose, especially a national championship game, but we lost to a true champion tonight," Brown said.

One champion to another. It's hard to top that. We'll believe it when we see it again.